Training Command is the
Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...
's command responsible for flying and ground training.
In the 1930s, the approaching threat and later advent of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and the leaning of Japan towards the Axis powers, the latter was considered as a potential enemy. Therefore, need was felt to make IAF a self-supporting force for the South Eastern Theatre of war. This led to the rapid expansion of the IAF. A target was fixed of 10 IAF Squadrons. With this expansion, the requirement of pilots and technical personnel increased. For the training of technical personnel, a technical training school was set up at Ambala in 1940.
In a 1949 reorganisation of the Indian Air Force, while frontline units were put under the Operations Command, all the training institutions were placed under the jurisdiction of the Training Command.
Among Training Command's units is the
Navigation Training School at
Begumpet Air Force Station,
Hyderabad
Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
. It flies the
BAe HS. 748, the
Basic Flying Training School and the
Air Force Administrative College. The Hawk Operational Training Squadron and Weapon System Operators' School are located at
Bidar Air Force Station
Bidar Air Force Station, () (), is a second largest flight training center in India. It is established by the Indian Air Force and It was founded during World War II and has been a training center for Indian Air Force pilots since 1963. Train ...
which flows the
Hawk Mk 132 trainer aircraft.
Early training platforms
Before and during the early years of Training Command’s establishment, the Indian Air Force relied on British-origin trainer aircraft such as the de Havilland Tiger Moth, Percival Prentice, and the North American Harvard to train successive batches of pilots. These aircraft formed the bedrock of IAF’s basic and advanced flight training from the 1930s through the 1950s, before being gradually replaced by indigenous and jet-powered platforms. A detailed account of this evolution has been documented in:
Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief
See also
*
Maintenance Command
Notes
Sources
*
{{Indian Air Force
Commands of the Indian Air Force
Military units and formations of the Indian Air Force